String for musical instruments

ABSTRACT

A STRING FOR MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS COMPRISING A CORE WIRE AND A COVERING WIRE IN WHICH THE PITCH OF WINDING SAID COVERING WIRE IS LARGER THAN THE DIAMETER OF SAID COVERING WIRE, AND BEING CHARACTERIZED IN THAT EACH TURN OF SAID COVERING WIRE DOES NOT MAKE CONTACT WITH EACH ADJACENT TURN OF SAID COVERING WIRE, AND THUS A SOUND WITH GOOD TONE QUALITY AND LASTING VIBRATION CAN BE PRODUCED.

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United States PatentOfice 3,605,544 STRING FOR MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS Masaru Kondo, Hamamatsu-shi, Japan, assignor to Nippon Gakki Seizo Kabushiki Kaisha, Hamamatsu-shi, Shizuoka-ken, Japan Filed June 25, 1969, Ser. No. 836,451 Claims priority, application Japan, June 27, 1968, 43/ 54,950 Int. Cl. G10c 3/06 1 US. Cl. 84-199 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A string for musical instruments comprising a core wire and a covering wire in which the pitch of winding said covering wire is larger than the diameter of said covering wire, and being characterized in that each turn of said covering wire does not make contact with each adjacent turn of said covering wire, and thus a sound with good tone quality and lasting vibration can be produced.

This invention relates to a string for musical instruments.

More particularly, this invention relates to a string having a covering wire wound tightly thereon which is used for stringed instruments such as pianos, guitars, violins and violin-cellos.

Furthermore, this invention relates to a string with a good tone quality.

In general, strings with covering Wires are used for stringed instruments, especially, for the strings in lower tone range. By providing with the covering wire on a core string, the weight per unit length of the string is increased which results in producing a lower sound. At the same time, by the strings with covering wires, voluminous sounds with good tone qualities are produced as compared with those produced by strings without covering wire. This kind of string is made of a strong core generally made of music or piano wire and a relatively pliable covering wire such as copper wire firmly and tightly wound on the core wire.

In the conventional strings of this kind, the covering wire is wound as closely as possible leaving no space therebetween. Therefore, a part of the vibration energy of the string is consumed by the friction between adjacent turns of the covering wire. Furthermore, the friction between adjacent turns of the covering wires produce undesirable noises. It has been considered heretofore that the covering wire must be wound as tightly as possible without any space between each turn of the winding because looseness of the covering wire is apt to produce undesirable resonances, buzzes and other noises.

This invention will be better understood from the following description taken in connection with the accompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is a view in elevation of a piano string of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is an elevational fragmentary view of a portion of the piano string shown in FIG. 1 wherein the detail of covering wire is shown;

FIG. 3 is an elevational fragmentary sectional view of a portion of the 'string as shown in FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is a schematic illustration in a plan view of a part of a winding apparatus wherein the string is shown in enlarged scale; and

FIG. 5 is a sectional view taken on the line VV in FIG. 4.

Now, referring to FIG. 1, there is illustrated a piano string of the present invention, in which the numeral 1 is a loop for a hitch pin, and the flattening of a core wire 2 at a point 3 provides a means for insuring that the end Patented Sept. 20, 1971 turns 4 of the covering wire 5 do not slip on the core wire 2. The covering wire 5 is wound firmly on the core wire 2 leaving no space between the core wire and covering wire and leaving a little space between each turn of the winding, and this is the characteristic feature of the present invention. Other construction of the string is the same as those of the conventional one. The numeral 6 is a tuning-pin end. The enlarged view shown in FIGS. 2 and 3 indicates the feature of the covering wire 5 wound on the core wire 2. For example, the piano string corresponding to the note D is comprised of a core wire, made of music or piano wire, which is 1.4 mm. (millimeter) in diameter and 1,965 mm. in length and a covering wire, made of copper, which is 1.25 mm. in diameter. The pitch L of winding of the covering wire is 1.55 mm. That is, the space between each adjacent turn of the covering wire is 0.3 mm. The above-mentioned piano string is stretched under the tension of kg. weight. The space between adjacent turns of the covering wire is preferably made as small as possible so long as the adjacent turns should not touch each other in vibration but practically, it is selected from 0.1 'to 0.3 mm. The winding pitch L may be varied in accordance with the pitch of the sound to'be produced and the diameters of the core wire and the covering wire. The pitch L may also be varied according to the various parts of the string, such as the middle part or the part near to the ends.

Thus in the present invention, each turn of the covering wire does not come into contact with the adjacent turn of the covering wire to produce no noises. Furthermore, the loss of energy by the friction is decreased so that the sound produced by the string of the invention will last longer than the conventional one.

In the following, an examplar apparatus for winding the string of the present invention is referred. In FIGS. 4 and 5, the winding section of a winding machine is schematically illustrated with only the essential parts thereof being shown, in which the diameters of the core wire 2 and the covering wire '5 are shown in enlarged scale for convenience sake.

The core wire 2 is rotated in the direction indicated with an arrow in FIG. 5, and the base plate 11 on rails 17, of the winding machine is moved to the left hand direction in FIG. 4 because the covering wire 5 is contacting and pushing the inclined surface 13 of the check block 12, while in the meantime the covering wire 5 is wound around the core wire 2. The free end of the covering wire 5 is pushed downwardly by a head block 14 (illustrated by a chain line) and to the left hand side by a hedge block 15 passing through the space formed by the base plate 11, the head block 14, the hedge block 15 and a backing block 16. Thus the covering wire is wound tightly and firmly on the core wire 2 with a winding pitch larger than the diameter of the covering Wire.

By adopting the proper check block 12 out of several prepared, the inclination of the inclined surface 13 can be selected in accordance with the diameters of the core wire 2 and covering wire 5 and the pitch L. The position of hedge block 15 may also be shifted from side to side in accordance with the pitch L.

As will be understood from the above disclosure, the I manufacturing step is not so required as in the ordinary winding step, therefore, the apparatus for the production of the string can be simplified as well as the work of the winding.

While the principles of the invention have been described above in connection with specific embodiments, it is to be clearly understood that this description is made only by way of example and not as a limitation on the scope of the invention.

What is claimed is:

1. A string for musical instruments comprising a core wire and a covering Wire wound on said core wire to form a number of spaced apart turns thereabont, the turns of said covering wire being spaced from one another to leave an open space therebetween, said open space being of less width than the diameter of said covering wire.

2. A string for musical instruments as claimed in claim 1 wherein the spacing between the adjacent turns of said covering wire is in the range of 0.1-0.3 millimeters.

3. A string for musical instruments as claimed in claim 1 wherein said covering wire is firmly wound on said core wire leaving no space therebetween.

4. A string for musical instruments as claimed in claim 9 References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,619,563 3/1927 Burdwise 84297 2,710,557 6/1955 Sundt 84199 2,728,278 12/1955 Dvorak 84199 2,892,374 6/ 1959 Ralls 84297 RICHARD B. WILKINSON, Primary Examiner L. R. FRANKLIN, Assistant Examiner US. Cl. X.R. 

